Author: Matt Corallo 2021-02-18 14:53:48
Published on: 2021-02-18T14:53:48+00:00
The activation of Taproot has sparked discussions on the potential risks associated with soft forks in Bitcoin. The argument being made is that setting Locktime on Timeout (LOT) to true in the code would not necessarily force users to upgrade to the new version of the software. Defaults set in software versions matter as many users won't change them.There is a possibility that if LOT=true is released, only a handful of people will begin running it while everyone else delays their upgrade for various reasons, resulting in a wasted year of waiting and a minority of people who didn't want to be lenient with miners by default.Some members of the discussion believe that those who are pushing for LOT=true need to be more humble about what users must or must not run. On the other hand, if LOT=false is set in protocol implementations such as Bitcoin Core, there is still a possibility of individuals or a proportion of the community changing LOT to true. Therefore, setting LOT=false in a software release appears to be no more safe than LOT=true.It is prudent to prepare for the unlikely but possible outcome that miners fail to activate and hence have this discussion now rather than be unprepared for that eventuality. In conclusion, it is recommended to set LOT=false in protocol implementations such as Bitcoin Core.A recent meeting on Taproot activation sparked a debate over whether LOT should be set to true or false. After several meetings and discussions, the Taproot activation parameters have been proposed for Bitcoin soft fork. These include an activation height range of 693504-745920, a MASF threshold of 1815/2016 blocks (90%), and LOT=false.However, it should be noted that only around 100 people attended the meetings, which is hardly representative of the entire community. While there was no consensus on LOT, the majority of the Bitcoin Core contributors, Lightning developers, and other community members opposed LOT=true, and some mining pools expressed a preference for LOT=false. Michael Folkson suggests that if they are to finalize Taproot activation parameters and propose them to the community at this time, their only option is to propose LOT=false.The emotional language surrounding the letters UASF is irrelevant since it can consist of a single node, ten nodes, a thousand, half of all nodes, all business' nodes, or even all the non-mining nodes. Some participants believe that no new feature is worth a network split down the middle and prefer to call bitcoin ossified, accepting that segwit is Bitcoin's last network upgrade. They suggest waiting until other blockchains implement features like Taproot before considering activation.Overall, there remains no clear consensus on LOT, and individuals will have to make their own choices on the matter.
Updated on: 2023-05-21T00:52:51.779011+00:00